Of Knights, Princesses, and Other Things That Shine
by I Took the One Less Travelled
Summary: Ginny Weasley decided from age ten that she wouldn't be what everyone wanted her to. Instead, she was going to break free of this. She was going to get Harry Potter, her knight in shining armour, to rescue her. But somewhere along the line, it occured to her that maybe he needed rescuing too. And maybe she was just the person for the job. H/G. Dumbledore bashing, Molly bashing.


Of Knights, Princesses, and Other Things That Shine

Ginny Weasley knew several things by the time that she reached the age of ten. Her mother was not normal. When her oldest brother, Bill, had graduated, he hadn't even gone home before apparating off to Egypt to be a Curse Breaker. He had ridden the train home, met them at the train station and given them all a hug before disapparating with a crack, and he hadn't been home for more than two whole days in a row since. Charlie had repeated Bill's dramatic exit almost exactly two years later, except that his final destination had been Romania to wrangle dragons. Was it a coincidence, that her two oldest brothers had chosen potentially dangerous occupations that were entirely different countries as soon as the graduated? Maybe, but Ginny didn't think so.

Percy studied hard, harder than anyone should. Ginny believed that he studied for the purpose of getting a job at the ministry straight after graduation, and making his abrupt escape the same way that Bill and Charlie had. Fred and George had similar plans, except that they revolved around entrepreneurship. They were developing products, getting ready to start their own joke shop. Ginny was sure that the twins' store would have an apartment above it that they could live in. They weren't going to bear Molly Weasley's presence for a second longer than they had to.

Ron was oblivious. Ginny could cut him some slack, since he was only eleven. But he was still oblivious. He thought with his stomach, and their mother could cook. He would happily remain home until he was thirty, under the protective embrace of a mother who was convined that all of her children were frozen in time at the age of five, and was perfectly content to go on treating them like that.

Ginny didn't intend for that to happen to her. However, since she was a girl, the rules were very different. She couldn't get a job and a flat upon graduation and apparate away like Bill and Charlie had, like Percy and the twins planned to. No, if you were a girl, you remained at home until you married. No exceptions, unless you wanted to be unmarriageable and shunned by polite society. Nobody would give her a job, nobody would rent her a place to live, and she would never be able to get married.

The solution? She had to be engaged, _on_ her seventeenth birthday, to a man that her parents approved of, no less. The problem with that was that, though her parents preached about acceptance, no muggleborn would ever be acceptable. Oh, it would be fine for her brothers—the women were just the wives, after all, staying at home and bearing children, unable to express their own opinions. Muggleborns made just as good wives as any other. But a husband? Well, for a husband to be acceptable, he had to have no less than impeccable breeding.

Of course, if she married a man like that, she would be leaping from one prison to another. This society treated wives the same way that they treated daughters—you went from an object to sell to a broodmare in the blink of an eye. One of these men would never give her the freedom that she sought. No, for this to work, she needed a man who had been muggle-raised, a man who had grown up in a world where women had _choices_, and wouldn't react negatively to a wife who wanted the same.

Therefore, she needed a muggle-raised halfblood. The problem with this was that no family of the appropriate breeding would ever allow their child to be raised in the muggle world.

Except for Harry Potter. The name Potter carried enough weight that his muggle half wouldn't matter, even without taking his fame into account. Plus, her mother was obsessed with the tale of the Boy-Who-Lived, and would happily invent a cheerful little romance between them. It was the perfect balance. The perfect plan.

Initially, the plan was simply to place herself near him and wait until he was older, watch what he liked in a girl, and become that person at all costs. If he liked chess, she would play chess. If he was in Hufflepuff, she would be in Hufflepuff. If he liked Quidditch, she would be the best damn Qudditch player that the world had ever seen. Then, once she had him, she would do whatever it took to keep him, even if it was something that was shameful unless she was married.

Ron played right into her hands by becoming his best friend. He spent his entire first year sending home letter after letter about Harry—Harry this, and Harry that. Soon after, Hermione joined in the letters. Ginny worried about Harry being in love with Hermione, but she figured that if he was, she would just have to convince him to love her too. She would settle for concubine status, if it would get her out of this world.

Thankfully, Harry liked Quidditch, something that she was both skilled at and enjoyed. Ron came galloping home at the end of that year boasting about three-headed dogs and enchanted mazes, and Dark Lords sticking out of the back of the defense professor's head, and it occurred to her that maybe, she wasn't the only one who needed rescuing, Maybe, just maybe, her knight in shining armour needed it too. And maybe, as his self-proclaimed princess, she was just the person for the job.

She began writing back and forth with Hermione that summer. If she was going to get Harry out of this mess, she needed all the help that she could get.

When she got done with Harry Potter, they were both going to be free. Free of expectation, free of people who wanted to take their choices away from them, free of manipulation. Whatever it took. But one thing that she hadn't anticipated was falling in love along the way.

**I seem to be on a roll with the inspiration lately. This was inspired by chapter 7 of The Accidental Bond, by kb0. Very good story, if you enjoy the occasional Harry/multi fic. Just to clear up any confusion that might have been caused by the chapter, this is definitely Harry/Ginny. Molly bashing, Dumbledore bashing. This fic will not bash Ron. It **_**will**_** feature an oblivious teenage Ron who can't figure out what's going on, however, when he does finally get clued in, he'll completely fall on their side. That won't be until fifth or sixth year, though. Also, to clarify, when Ginny said that she would do anything to keep him, she means that she'll have sex with him, even though she's been taught that it is absolutely wrong to do so before marriage. It doesn't mean that she'll dose him with a love potion. This story will feature a more overtly Slytherin!like Harry, as well as a Slytherin!like Ginny, though both will be in Gryffindor. This story will actually begin when Ginny first meets Harry in COS, after Ron and the twins have rescued him from the Dursleys. It will become AU very quickly from there on out.  
**


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